when you go from a tiny amount of countertop to a large amount, you might well take a couple extra minutes to declutter it. I do,

Interesting!
I can see the gunk on the painted off-white perimeter cabinets & the dust on the very dark-stained island much better than I could on the medium-stained birch cabinets in the old kitchen. They'd get pretty gunky before I'd notice!
I'm constantly wiping now, I think, because it's obvious.
It's still new, though, so maybe my "vision" will weaken over time.

hahahahaha!

Before the kitchen remodel I kept house like a drunken frat boy.
After the kitchen remodel, I keep house like a drunken frat boy with great design sense.

We will still be a messy family once our kitchen is done, but some things really have a specific place now making them easier to put away, and that does help our family. For example, there are many, many slots in a cabinet for trays, cooling racks, cutting boards, etc. rather than a cupboard w/a big pile of these things, making it tough to take them out and put them away. And, the floor was a large white tile floor that looked dirty moments after it was finally cleaned, and it's been replaced w/green and cream marmoleum checkerboard, and it always looks clean, and is much easier to sweep than our tile floor. Finally, we chose glass knobs for our most heavily used cabinets, as we have original glass knobs on all our doorways, and they always look clean. So, yes, we will still be messy, but we designed knowing the people in the house probably wouldn't change much, so how could we make the kitchen better for that. Oh, and forgot that we put in a double sink. Single sink was awful for us. Had to dig under dirty dishes to find the drain plug and start the dishes. Now, dirty dishes (the ones we don't put in the dishwasher) go on one side and you can then start dishwater going in the other side. Hope I haven't shocked those of you who are neat and don't need this help from your kitchen!

circuspeanut, you and i must be related!!
i always tell people that my house looks like we're having a frat party.
and phish and their followers are in there too somewhere.

Yes. I love my new kitchen, compared to my old one it's a dream come true. I want it to look nice all the time, but it's small so not much work and it's only me so not much mess either. No more clutter, no more dishes in the sink - except overnight sometimes compared to never the first month right after the new kitchen was finished. :) I've always liked clean counters. With cream colored beadboard walls I see every speck of whatever isn't suppose to be there, plus any little bug hiding in the corner or on the ceiling! Not quite as obsessive about going around with a wet cloth in my hands wiping them down like before, but still loving the whole "new kitchen experience".

I'm not a bad housekeeper, I'm just an over-committed enthusiastic gardener who runs out of time to clean. That said, I am consciously trying to keep things clean since my mini kitchen makeoever, but there are just not enough hours in the day to do it all, nor money in the budget for a housekeeper. So, I tell myself that dirt is good, it builds strong immune systems.

Wow, there's a club for us?

Love the drunken frat boy analogy.

My slobbish nature, and that of my dh, is the main reason I'm afraid of putting granite in the kitchen. I had a major cook-a-thon last night, was dead tired afterward, and no one helped me clean up. It's still there except I do have the dishes soaking in the sink now. At least I know I can't hurt laminate.

I was actually hoping mine would make me a better cook but that didn't happen.

I guess I was better with clutter since I planned better use for drawers and cabinets. If my stuff didn't have a place, I got rid of it. I didn't take long to put things where they belonged. I loved my granite so I found myself constantly wiping, and clean windows definately made a huge difference in showing off the kitchen.

Unfortunately, we decided to downsize and I no longer have my dream kitchen and my cooking skills still haven't changed.

Baaaahhh haa ha ha ha...

Great! (insert impressive foot stamp and eye roll) Now I have guilt!

My problem is clutter, but mostly because I don't have room to put everything away so it ends up sitting on the countertop. I usually clean up after dinner although yesterday was an exception and I still have the pans from last night's fish dinner staring at me because I did battle with an overgrown shrub yesterday (all day to thin and trim one shrub!) and was too tired last night to clean up the kitchen.

I'm still in the kitchen dreamin' stage but my hope (maybe delusion?) is that when I finally get to reno my kitchen it will be easier to keep clean because everything will have a place to be put away. DH is leaving today for a 4-day business trip so I'm emptying my 2 pantries and doing a major re-organization. I better get off this computer and get started! Please send some energizing vibes my way so I get this project done!

It takes a little time to get to be a better housekeeper.

Usually the time after the kids have moved out

and your DH is retired and decides to run the vacuum now and then for fun.

Just give it time....

:)

I love this thread!

I like to think about 2 sides of the issue--which aspects of kitchen design make it easier to keep clean, neat, whatever, and which aspects LOOK cleaner, regardless.

For example, I really WANT my countertops to BE clean, so my current ideas about helping that are to have an undermount sink to make crumb-wiping mre effective, and I want countertops to "show" crumbs and spills (but not stain!). I want good light there for that reason too.

Whereas, I'd like clean appliance exteriors in theory, but am not too hung up about the germ theory; I don't eat off my refrigerator door, so I don't want them to "look" dirty just by virtue of a fingerprint; I want to maybe wipe them....in the wintertime when I'm not gardening!

The EASY to clean idea sort of overlaps-several folks have noted that a newly-chosen area or surface may need frequent cleaning, but it turns out to be a lot quicker or simpler than they feared so it was not hard to develop a new "habit". This is obviously very individualized, as to whether it's easy or a pain.

So I really enjoy reading pros and cons of various kitchen decisions to sort into these categories regarding being at peace with my housecleaning-avoidant nature.

I think my new kitchen has made me a better housekeeper. My old kitchen had the sort of color scheme that made it look grotty no matter how hard I scrubbed and cleaned. The new kitchen looks clean when I clean it and that serves as positive reinforcement.

I am a terrible housekeeper and have 2 kids and a full time job. I had white (melanine, horrible) cabinets for 10 years before our remodel with a white tile countertop, an overmount sink and shiny white grey floor tile. I never had the time nor the inclination to wipe the cabinets. When we took them out, there was juice and tomato sauce drips on some of them...I have no idea when they got there. I didn't notice them...maybe my guests did sometimes but they were too nice to comment. (I'm sure that 90% of the readers are cringing now.)

We put dark wood cabinets in, soapstone counters, an undermount sink (which I can wipe crumbs right into) and porcelain travertine (brown) floor tile. I do wipe up spills on the cabinets when I realize that there is a spill, but I'm glad they don't show so easily when I forget. The floor gets swept and mopped but still looks good when I can't get around to it. I don't see gunk around the sink anymore since our new one is undermounted. I love, love, the counters...so easy to clean. No yucky stuff getting stuck in the grout.

My new kitchen hasn't made me a better housekeeper, but it is easier to keep clean so that the time I do put into it, is more effective. And shows much nicer when we have guests.

I think the glass guy who installed our shower door a few years ago was somewhat taken aback when he seriously suggested that we squeegy the door after every shower and I laughed out loud. "In some other universe!" I told him.

I thought it would, and it did for awhile, but not anymore!

marti8a, I think granite in general is pretty tough! I had laminate like you, now have granite, and have no worries about hurting it. You can even set very hot pans on it (I'm sure you know that).

I agree with someone who posted about how difficult their kitchen is to keep clean CURRENTLY. WIth tile and grout for countertops, I almost feel like if it is covered in dishes, it looks better!LOL I don't WANT to look at it! So once I get counters that I WANT to see, I'm sure I'll be more diligent about keeping them tidy.

Now that everything has a "place," I find myself putting everything away each and every time. Plus, I love the new kitchen, so I've really been working on the clutter (but I think I have to credit that to having the previous house for sale for 5 months).

Mabel- I think we should start a support group! I'd spend more time cleaning, but I have to play (I mean work) in my garden, too! LOL

Since we live on a farm, I know lots of stuff will get tracked in and no matter how much you clean, five minutes later it's not going to be perfect. So, to make it easier, vinyl floors (that look like wood) with formica/arborite countertops are probably my best choice.

Painted cabinets are a must for me, as long as I can scrub them down...and that usually means a fresh coat of paint, so no fancy finishes or glazes for me. They're pretty, but too much upkeep on a farm :)

No, and yes. I, in general, am not a different person, and am not a fastidious housekeeper, or anything close. However, it does help to have easy clean surfaces and 'a place for everything.' It's the piles of things that have no home that make the rest of my house a mess. (OK, that plus some bad habits and fatigue/laziness.) I'd say the kitchen is the cleanest and most organized room in the house.

I wouldn't give up on painted cabinets, though. I agree that white can be hard to keep up with, especially in the crevices. But I also agree that you're more likely to wipe white cabinets when the mess is smaller and newer, so easier to get under control. There are other colors that might be options for you...Still light, but not white? Wood hides more, but it does hide, which means it's harder to know you're getting clean. Additionally, it gets worse before you clean and may not be as scrubbable as some paints.

Will it make me a better housekeeper? Welll, hope springs eternal -- but in the meantime I am using materials with variegated color patterns! ;-)

I seriously hope that the additional storage space translates into less clutter. (Hey, stop laughing! You never know...)

Our tendency is also to clean at the end of the day and deep clean every couple of weeks. So our kitchen can look lived in and messy but clean. DH is a neatnik, so that helps with the load sharing.
I think it depends on how much emphasis you put during the design phase on making the kitchen "easy to clean" and organize. The issue is always time.. So making it faster and easier to prep, cook and eat, also give more time to clean. Over the years, I have learned to insist on easy to clean equipment. I paid the 10 dollars more for a hard blendar I can pop into the dishwasher. We are literally spending quite a bit of time mocking up a kitchen set up and do pretend prep, cook, clean to tweak the design of what goes where and how to make it faster.. We decided to move the vac pan closer to the dinette area as that is a bigger crumb zone for us. I am trying to do "mise-en-place" for all major tasks to make sure I mimize time wasted in each task by keeping everything within hand's reach.

Yes. Because I did add additional storage space so that everything has a place, so everything can be in it's place. Including the pantries. Function, function, function when planning!

Yes. I love my new kitchen and all of my choices for it took cleaning into consideration. The quartz counters are easy, induction cook top a breeze to keep clean and even my light fixtures are not bug catchers. The cabinets have a wonderful silky finish that can be wiped with my dishcloth when I get my sticky, dough covered hands on them. The floor shows nothing, but when something goes crunch, then I know its time to get the broom out. I have never wanted to spend my time cleaning any more than necessary. I do have a housekeeper that comes in once a week to do the deep cleaning.

I am also much more organized with all my drawers and there is little sitting out on the counter most of the time. My kitchen has what I call a zen feeling about it now and I never expected that.
My new appliances have definitely made me a better cook.

Nancy

bahacca, sort of reminds me that with my "before" kitchen I used to keep the window blinds down during the day so the sun wouldn't shine in and show up all the horrible torn brown wallpaper, gouged walls and woodwork, white trim that was old and never looked clean no matter how much you washed it. Then there was the ceiling that was cheap wall board with what used to be white wallpaper on it 40yrs. ago. ewww.

Anyhow, now I don't even have curtains OR window blinds on either window.

Back in the 80's, Don Aslett, a professional cleaner, wrote a book called "Make Your House Do The Housework." In it he talks about building a house the most cleaning-efficient way. The choices we make for cupboards, faucets, floors, paint, carpet, etc either makes our cleaning more or less difficult. The more ornate the detail, very light and very dark colors, solids vs. patterned flooring, etc DO take more time and effort to clean. Knobs vs. touch-digital. Plain wallpaper vs. flocked(remember this was from the 80's lol) Anyway, the whole book covers each room and building choices in each of those rooms.

This is the guy who taught me to double-mat my doors to keep the dirt out: one mat for the outside and one mat for the inside since 80% of the dirt we have in our homes comes from outside our homes.

For me I am much tidier in the new kitchen because I enjoy looking at the fruits of my design when it looks its best. I clean and polish the countertops and get rid of smudges on the appliances on a daily basis, I can't stand having it be a wreck. When it's dirty after a party it just feels gross.

Mine did! I bought into the "don't put it down, put it away" philosophy after the remodel. When I leave the kitchen in the evening after dinner is cleaned up, it looks like the finished photo I took after the remodel (and decorating) was finished.

Mine will in the sense of having more storage and the right kinds of storage in the right place for things that sometimes sat out.

I also subscribe to the theory that I'll love my new kitchen so much ill want it sparkling because a. It's made from my choices b. It's pretty c. It's new d. It'll be clean to start with. I'm not a messy person in general, but sometimes I hated cleaning those ugly cabs, grody floor, and hideous hardware.

Even if it doesn't make me a better housekeeper per se, I'll be a much happier person when this reno is over so I'll be happier to do the cleaning!

In a way yes, when we reno'd the kitchen we opened it up to the living room and because it was nice and new and shiny, I tend to keep it cleaner and straighter than before the reno.

It has also made me a better cook. I feel more inspired to cook in my new space. Plus having appliances that actually work the way they are suppose to helps ;-)

I love this thread. It makes me feel so much better. I have actually had moments where I feel like I don't DESERVE a new kitchen because I will never keep it looking beautiful anyway. Honestly though, it is really hard to care about keeping a space that you find so frustrating nice and tidy.

What a great thread! True confessions time...I am an iffy housekeeper at best. Having said that, much of my difficulty pre-remodel was not having places to put things. As such, I was pretty ruthless about getting rid of items when I packed up the kitchen. So now that there's more storage space and less stuff, there hopefully won't be an assortment of items living on the countertop.

We did the bathrooms 2+ years ago and I actually do squeegee the glass every time I use it (trust me, that's a shocker). So I have high hopes for my kitchen maintenance habits once it's all done.

I'm a pretty good housekeeper, but I live with 4 boys (okay, 1 husband, and 3 sons) and they are pigs. I kept that thought in mind with every choice I made. I only made one mistake. I cook a lot and don't put my knives or pans in the dishwasher, so they are always stacked to be washed or are drying on the counter next to the sink. I wanted runnels put into my granite so I wouldn't need a dishdrainer. The granite guy and my architect talked me out of it because the sink faces a big window that is a focal point in my kitchen, as is the granite. Well, guess what? Focal point or not, the knives and pans are more often than not sitting in a dish drainer next to the sink, where the runnels would have been. I could dry them and put them away, but I usually don't. Should have stuck to my guns.

I can agree with so much here. Our new kitchen helps keep itself clean easier because it is not overcrowded and the materials look good.

Our old laminate counters had nicks and scratches in it before we moved in. No matter how clean it was, it looked like it needed to be cleaned. The grout on the floor was once white, but not by the time we bought the house. The stove top was a smooth top that had been overscrubbed by the p.o. so when I got my hands on it, it looked like it needed cleaning and I compounded her mistake by scrubbing some more of it off. Oops.
The areas near the hardware were gross/blackish so I scrubbed those. Unfortunately, when you scrub bleached oak, it takes off a little finish, so it was not much better after I cleaned them (but at least it was hygenic).
No matter how clean the kitchen was, it looked icky. I am guilty of clutter for sure, but I hated it to look unclean.

In our new kitchen, when I wipe the counters, they look spotless. The white cab fronts wipe down easily too and look good. The floor shows crumbs/debris, so I sweep it several times a day, but there is no yucky grout to look unsanitary. Our colors are a mottled black and 2 grays, so they show more than a medium palette would. The old white tiles needed a lot of sweeping too, so that is a wash. I use the Roomba at least once a day, but I spot sweep often. I am working on housebreaking the boys, so that will calm down in the near future if they want to keep breathing, lol.
The only thing that is more maintenance is the wall oven. It is stainless and shows fingerprints or smudges that don't come off easily. It functions well and so I am not hating it.

I don't keep a dish drainer out any more because we wash more in the dw because the new one actually cleans what we put in it (a new concept around here, lol). I also love the new attached drainboard in our sink, so stuff lingers there to dry and gets put away. Our old chrome basket type drainer would hold things for a while because some items had no other place to be. Our new sink itself is not as big, so that encourages more frequent cleaning of pots and such. It has helped us by not having pile ups.

Mostly, I enjoy working in the new kitchen and love how it looks, so it is more a labor of love to clean it. It also looks clean and is not depressing to see when it is all done. It has encouraged me to cook even more than before because it is enjoyable to do so with more elbow room and a better layout. Things that used to sit on the counter or chair now have designated places to be and to be found. I have been working on new better habits for myself and the family, but the kids are a work in progress. Dh has been better in the new kitchen (a miracle) partly because he sees how hard I am trying and partly because he likes how it looks too. It also helps that he has his own drawer instead of plopping odds and ends on top of the micro in our old kitchen. I do catch him putting his wallet, lozenges, to do lists/keys, etc.. on the top of the island in one spot, but I move them into his drawer. I have him up to approx 2/3 of the time complying. Rome wasn't built in a day....

Overall, I'd say it improved my habits and has pushed me to declutter more frequently and attract less clutter in the first place. The old kitchen was its own excuse for not looking great, this one is on us if it is not looking nice.

I also enjoying cooking more in the improved space so cook again like I used to when I had a nice kitchen in our first house. I can keep all my kitchen tools in circulation again and not have to go digging in another room if I need a special one.

Am I a completely different person/housekeeper? That remains to be seen in the long term. For now, our kitchen and other rooms (new ones, renovated ones, and even untouched ones) are kept better organized and neater. Unpacking back in our rooms has helped whittle out what we don't need and we no longer need reno materials and samples stored all over. I always kept things clean but no one has ever accused me of being a neat freak and I doubt that will change! I just hope it looks homey and not ransacked in the future ;)

basically echoing what everyone else has posted.

although our kitchen is not totally finished, i am about 3/4 moved in. i do cook in there but we are still eating downstairs. lots of odds and ends to do, we did the reno ourselves. started in april.

i see myself keeping everything cleaner and less cluttered because i want everything to look like new, things now have a place, and want to take care of all our new things.

our old 70's kitchen was just soooo old and ugly. i really didn't care and really i didn't even "see" it anymore. i hated it.

i also put thought into what we were buying. i wanted everything easy to clean and keep clean. examples, induction cooktop, granite tops, paneled appliances, laminate wood floor, full granite backsplash on cooktop wall - didn't want tile and have to deal with the grout do the road. i tried to make it as easy for myself as possible, getting older you know!

so yes, i think we will be alot cleaner, neater and "conscious" of what we are doing. and since dh did all the work, he has a vested interest in the kitchen ,so he cleans and declutters which is great/awesome. kids, a work in progress...

i think when you love your new space and spent to much time, emotion and money in it, you want to keep as beautiful as possible for as long as possible

"My slobbish nature, and that of my dh, is the main reason I'm afraid of putting granite in the kitchen."

Just to get this out of the way--girl, that's exactly why you NEED granite! It's amazingly forgiving; most granite has enough pattern that you really don't see a lot of crumbs/mess. You can set stuff down on it, you can cut on it if you really want to. It's a piece of *rock*, that's my philosophy. Granite shouldn't be any kind of hard work to maintain and it sure hasn't been for me.

As for housekeeping, my prior kitchen was almost 60 years old. There ain't no way to clean 60 year old grout, and to remove dirt that is embedded into chips in 60 year old tile. Without a dishwasher, there was the 24/7/365 presence of dirty dishes and/or draining dishes in the sink and on the countertop. Storage was inadequate as was counter space so there was stuff stacked everywhere and more stuff crammed in the garage.

Now? My white cabinets aren't any bother to keep clean. Just wipe 'em down as I notice any spills or dirt. The dishwasher keeps the sink empty and there isn't a nasty grunge- and mold-breeding dish drainer living on the countertop any more. It still amazes me that I can make a full dinner and by the time I sit down to eat the kitchen is clean, since I can now put all the prep pans/utensils/dishes in the dishwasher instead of having them piled all over the sink and countertop. Speaking of which, the countertop itself is now the aforementioned easy-breezy-cleanup granite instead of the aforementioned dirty, stained and tired grouted tile surface.

I am not particularly fond of stainless steel so I got panels for everything except the stove. Et voila, no wiping fingerprints or drips off appliance fronts. The glass cooktop needs to be polished but no more icky burner pans that would end up reeking when I heated them up if I hadn't cleaned up whatever had spilled the last time I cooked. Much easier to keep that clean, for sure.

So in sum, yes the new kitchen made me a better housekeeper just because it had made it so much easier to KEEP clean!

Well, it didn't change my basic nature, but the granite is so much easier to clean that we keep that really nice. With the old bumpy tile and wide grout, it seemed like there was no way to get it clean. Our granite is so smooth and non-porous cleans up with a wipe even if someone has missed a drip over night.

The lack of places to put things in the old kitchen made it so much harder to clean up. Who wants to put that crock pot away when it requires you going halfway across the house and bring out a stepstool to do so? So it sat on the counter for a week. Mail? Well, where else is it gonna go? The counter is better than that floor or the couch!

Since the renovation, I have been better about cleaning. In part cause now I have a place for everything, in part cause the kids are older and I require them to help daily, and in part cause I like seeing my new kitchen look good. But it still gets messy a lot.

That said, I think you are smart for picking surfaces that maintain well. I know if I had something like solid, black, shiny granite, which maintains like a mirror would, it would be filthy always.

That's the plan! At least I'm really hoping that it will work that way. I call myself a closet neat freak. I would LOVE to have an immaculate (but warm and comfortable) home but it seems like I never have the time and clutter always gets the best of us. I keep everything clean (you can walk around in white socks and they stay white) but the clutter is overwhelming. I blame this very small house and the lack of storage as well as the lack of time. We only have 2 very small closets - one in each bedroom. Can you imagine? It's horrific. So.... I really hope that adding some cabinets and maximizing the layout of the kitchen will kick off a chain reaction and allow us to be more organized and less cluttered. Plus having a few new shiny things (sink, refrigerator) will definitely motivate me to keep them looking new and shiny! I hope...

I will DEFINITELY be a better housekeeper in the new kitchen.

1. I will have alot more cabinet/pantry space for the clutter currently on my counters.

2. I will have the TIME to do it, once this 3 year house project is done!

My friend and I are both building homes, and we joke about how we won't know what to do with ourselves once it's actually done.

I would post an answer, but the guilt is killing me and I hafta go clean now.

Absolutely YES!! It could also possibly bring about world peace!!

(okay, the wine is kicking in)

So far yes, but I keep wondering if it will last.

Hahahahaha

I just noticed in this thread how many of us are better housekeepers with our new kitchens. I wonder if anyone is also doing better in their other rooms?
My answer would be mixed. We reno-ed many rooms at once, but not a single one is completely done. I got immune to reno debris/clutter such as paint cans and accessories and boxes. Even though no room is done, I have been making progress weekly (or is it weakly?) towards putting things back together. I then get militant about what I have done and try to make the others in the house help maintain it. For a not so perfect house, I sure do have a lot of work staying on them to help build some good habits. I am far from perfect, but my dh and sons need a lot of training to get to my level of not great, lol....

Like Ecobuzz, my house is clean, but rarely neat. I am trying so hard for it to get neater and then stay there. It is an uphill battle for sure! I did lose momentum a few months ago, but getting dh and the boys back to school has given me new energy. On my days off I can accomplish something other than just undoing their damage and making meals. In a few weeks, baseball will be over and so laundry will be cut in half.

I'd give myself a higher grade overall for housekeeping, but know there is room for more improvement. It didn't transform me but I do like how it looks now when it is spiffed up, so that is the incentive to bring it to its full potential. Prior to the reno, it did not look great no matter how I neatened it or tried to hide overflow. Now it has some style and people can see where it is headed.

I told DH that when our new kitchen is done I get a cleaning lady ;) That's my fix...hope it works :)

I barely have enough money for me to clean it after the reno, lol...

One of the bigger problems (among many) in my old kitchen was drying plastic bags hanging from two round plastic lingerie dryers on towel racks. It made for quite the mess.

I now have so much counter space behind the sink that this process goes much better. I leave the bags propped open on a wooden "V"-shaped rack with just two levels and sometimes once they've dried a bit just on the counter. I can do that; there's space to. They dry fast and then they go away fast because there is a place to put them.

The pots and pans are supposed to be going away more because they too now have a space. But as before, they get used almost as fast as they get cleaned, so they're starting to sit around more and more. There's more stovetop for them to do so painlessly now.

The new DW definitely using less water than handwashing, at 0.7gal per load, means that I run the DW more frequently. This in turn makes it easier to put away because there is less inside. I used to hate emptying the DW and it would sit, sometimes until nearly everything just got used again. It's so easy to swivel and pivot everything away now, this happens and then guess what? There's a place to put the dirty dishes in the sink: into the DW. This is kind of like a revelation. I thought I was so inherently messy I could never have a clean sink. In actuality, I abhor emptying dishwashers but this new system permits throughput: very nice!

There's also acreage above my DW (which at 90-degrees to the sink turns out to have been a stroke of brilliance. I was *really* nervous about this configuration but it turns out to be better than any I've ever had before). I use the acreage to ... air dry all that !#$^ plastic that came out of the DW! I never use the heated drying cycle which is no problem at all for ceramic and much problem for sure for the plastic. Now I have room to set the whole load, one-piece-high, across the top of the DW on the counter. It's dry very quickly this way and then ... I've actually been putting it away. Don't know how long this will last, I think I'm still in the novelty-honeymoon. But things seem promising to me. Acreage is key for me, as it turns out. I hadn't realized this before, but with it the contrast is striking.

I am certainly not the best housekeeper. We both work full time and I (unfortunately) am the only one who does any cleaning in the house. I have not yet remodeled my kitchen, but I have (almost) finished two bathroom remodels and a laundry room remodel. My housekeeping in those rooms has significantly improved with the remodels. Because I love the rooms and love the materials I used, I am much more motivated to keep things clean. I chose a mixture of easy to clean materials and more complicated (marble counter and white grout in one). I find myself cleaning more frequently and more carefully because of my desire to keep the rooms beautiful. I hope that as I continue remodeling (kitchen, one more bathroom), I will also continue to be more diligent about housekeeping.